Representation of historic events in video games
My idea that I will explore for my special study is the representation of historical events in videogame. I will explore the way videogame studios create these games that contain historical information or set in a historical era and how the information has been changed or the accuracy of the information. Many games will be different in their unique way to make it entertaining and also understanding. I will research how games studios gather and implement the information to use in their work and if its accurate. Furthermore, I will look at quantative and qualitive data to see if a game has received good reviews and success which allow me to gage how people like the way historical games and made. However, some may find it unethical as there can be some backlash as the way the culture or people portrayed in the era of the game may not be right. I will explore the good and bad of these games to find out the way historical events are represented. In addition, the practitioners I will explore are the studios which create and produce these games and how they get these information to create these games.
– How accurate are the historic events and information in videogames?
– Gaining knowledge about the past and important information whilst enjoying it
– Is it right to use historic events in videogames
As some may not agree
– Not having false information and bias
– altering information and original plot
– Culture and religion representation
Ubisoft was founded in the 1980s and created by brothers which focused on videogames. The first game they released which was zombi and sold around 5000 copies. The company grew larger over the years and raised around 80 million dollars which helped the expand the company and become worldwide. The company then worked with Xbox and bought other companies further expanding their growth. The company then created their well-known franchise assassin’s creed In 2007 which is heavily revolved around historical events with their original story and twist. They have created many AAA games and have had many successful games over the years such as tom Clancy’s games, Watch dogs and started working on their own Ubisoft original games. The main game that had an impact on me and liked was assassin’s creed which has its own multiple storylines in many other assassins’ creed which takes place in different eras such as roman, Egyptian, French revolution, Vikings and Victorian era. This will help me with my specialist study as I will focus on how historical games are represented in these games which assassin’s creed is well known for these representations.
ACTIVISION
Activision is an American videogame company based in Santa Monica California and is one the biggest gaming companies. The company was founded in 1979 and were the first independent third-party console developer they first worked on three games which released at the same time which was the company’s first game, Their first game to sell over a million copies was kaboom which helped them get recognized and growth. The continued growth led them to make a lot of profit which they also acquired raven software and Treyarch which helped them to create bigger and better games. In 2009 Activision acquired sledgehammer games which allowed them to focus on creating more call of duty games which was the biggest franchise for the company and very popular worldwide. This will help me with my specialist study because call of duty is well known for historical games such as world war 2 which I will focus on how accurate and how the events in the game are compared to WW2.
ASOBO STUDIO
In 2002 twelve people bought a PlayStation game super farm which they then created Asobo studio. They were well known for creating game from movies such as Pixar and Disney films. In 2014 asobo studio partnered with Ubisoft and Microsoft and released bunch of games but were not huge games. In 2017 they released a plague tale innocence which was a big success and had amazing storytelling, graphics and gameplay. This game is what I will research on and how accurately the information of the plague is and is it important for gameplay. The game follows a sister and her younger brother who is being hunted down as he is immune to the plague the storytelling is emotional and well put together which is why it had a huge success. This game will help me to research how a game should be entertaining and accurate which gives the players a better understanding of that era and enjoying the experience Aswell.
I created a google forms survey which I asked some opened and closed questions to collect some qualitive data. I had gained 13 responses which most people did say that most historical games are represented very well as they think it is good to obtain information and having fun. Some replies said that they want the game to be exciting than having it fully historical accurate and make the player become engaged. Also, I had a pie chart which shows what peoples favorite historical game was, 23.1% said assassin’s creed franchise which was tied with red dead redemption 23.15%. This showed me how the majority of people liked games that are set a very long time ago as its new experience which people may have not known any or little information about as they can gain new knowledge and experience whilst also enjoying the game. Furthermore, these games were the most popular and did well as the players and reviews really enjoyed these games. The second most game people that did my survey liked was battlefield which shows that many people enjoy games that take place in world war era and had many accurate game and locations which is what made the game successful. In addition, most people said that they want the game to have its original story but include some historical impacts as it can make the game more fun. However some people said that some games ruin the historical aspect.
I also asked if it was right for game studios to create videogames from historical events, the responses were mostly yes as it can help people and younger generation learn about the past as it can be very important and can gain important information whilst playing videogames. Furthermore, they said some historical events may be sensitive for some people so certain events would rather be chosen as some historical events may not be suitable to create videogames from. I also found out that 38.5% people preferred the game studio Ubisoft which shows me that many people really like assassin’s creed franchise which shows the accurate and amazing way that the studio creates their game and presents historical events in that historical era as some elements are accurate with including its own twist and story. In addition, the historical event that most people are familiar with is world war 2 which shows that most people are familiar with this historical event as not only was it very important but also life changing for the world.
This quantative data shows when the game released between 2 days and shows the data of the 24-hour peak and all-time peak which is a lot of people which the game did well. This shows that the player base enjoyed the game as it was not entirely historical accurate but did teach and give a very good amount of information.
An interview was done by pcgamesn for Assassin’s creed odyssey and was set in ancient Greece and was accurate but not entirely, as the clothing, statues, buildings and culture were the most accurate of the game. The game is very accurate and features around assassinations and espionage were covered up revolutions and crusaders. However, the game included mythical creatures such as medusa and fighting Greek mythological creatures, But the game did teach a lot about ancient Greece and how people lived and were like and the cities. The qualative data which I found out as the the professor who was interviewed data.
As an imaginative structure it’s terrific,” Professor Scully tells me, “it adds a layer of engagement with a story. It would work whether the story be a Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Greek, or whatever sort of story. You aren’t dealing with truth here, you’re dealing with human imagination, and Medusa is a figment of Greek imagination. Our word for myth comes from the Greek word ‘muthos’, meaning story. The Greek people understood these myths as fictional stories.”
This shows the cultural focus of the game as the focus for this game was to make it engaging with its story.
Call of duty cold war is a very accurate game when it comes to the historical event as the story, gunplay, buildings, and the people at that time. The game was set in 1980’s during the beginning of the first Reagan administration and towards the end of cold war. One of the things which they had done well and was accurate as the game included a soviet spy at Los alamos in its story as the narrator informs the player that the Manhattan project at Los alamos was stolen by a soviet spy. This was accurate except that there was more soviet spies. However, the character Perseus possibly did not exist and some historians question this. On the other hand, some scholars speculate that Perseus was the fourth soviet spy that infiltrated the Los alamos nuclear site and if there was a person like this in real life its mostly likely not like this character in call of duty. The most accurate thing that was represented was the military equipment in the game, most soviet soldiers used ak-47 and mp5 in the game as these were the most common used weapons by groups such as CIA and MI-6. Also there was a RC car which was used to disable cargo planes which was possible in the 1980’s.
Another inaccuracy was that the U.S did not have nuclear weapons in Vietnam. In the game on of the missions was to secure and extract the nuclear bomb the Viet Cong stole from the U.S military. However, there was no record of the U.S military having nuclear weapons in Vietnam. Furthermore, another very accurate part of the game was towards the end of the story as there was a member of the CIA working for the KGB as at the end of the story the player finds out that there was a brain washed KGB soldier that had infiltrated the CIA which happened in real life multiple times.
Overall, from what I have found whilst researching for my study was that many games that take place in historical eras and events mainly have its original story with historical elements and accuracy. Game studios mainly do this as they want the game to be engaging and exciting in that historical era and represent in a way in which the game is fun to pay whilst learning and gaining knowledge about history and the culture. In addition, they do also include many historical parts which are not accurate to make the game more exciting which does make sense as they don’t want the players to become bored. Furthermore, from my survey I had multiple opinions of people showing that this is what they like which some studios do. Also, games that implement these in a good way a good reputation and reviews which makes the game popular allowing the fanbase to grow. Also the games that did represent historical events correctly many people picked in my survey which shows how well the game studios know what to do.
Bibliography
En.wikipedia.org. 2022. Ubisoft – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubisoft> [Accessed 20 January 2022].
En.wikipedia.org. 2022. Activision – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activision> [Accessed 20 January 2022].
Garst, A., 2022. How historically accurate is Assassin’s Creed Odyssey? We asked a Classics professor. [online] PCGamesN. Available at: <https://www.pcgamesn.com/assassins-creed-odyssey/historically-accurate> [Accessed 17 February 2022].
Drake, J., 2022. Call Of Duty: 5 Things That Are Historically Accurate In Cold War (& 5 Things That Aren’t). [online] TheGamer. Available at: <https://www.thegamer.com/call-of-duty-cold-war-historically-accurate-facts/> [Accessed 18 February 2022].